Watch a very rare video of an early 20th century opium den in colonial Indonesia. The use of this drug was common in many parts of Asia, during this period, and even sometimes encouraged by the colonial authorities, but rarely has it been openly filmed for the public.

Posted Oct-10-2012 By

TMoray1

I don't know, this upload was about an opium den in colonial Indonesia...

Concerning the slogan, if you are talking about the Boxer Rebellion it was indeed Queen, not King, but if you are talking about the time in the video then it was King, not Queen...

In the meantime I found this, which is a bit more interesting:

By the early twentieth century, in some colonies, the processing of this raw opium had been taken over by the state. The Dutch, for example, invested in a state-of-the-art opium-processing factory in Batavia (now Jakarta) in the Netherlands East Indies (now IndonesiMore..a). Similarly, the British set up their own opium factories in India. Interestingly, the British colonial facilities (at Neemuch and Ghazipur in India) are still being used to produce opium, which is now legally exported to the United States and other countries for medicinal purposes; the morphine derived from this opium is used worldwide as a painkiller of last resort in patients, especially those who are terminally ill. (source)Less..

Posted Oct-10-2012 By

Valerie2007

Read about a man, Burroughs maybe, who came into a fair amount of money and had a monthly allowance sent to an opium den he lived in for more than a few years. As had been prearranged at the start, when the money was about to run out the bank sent the balance which was enough to pay for his trip back to England and re-hab. Seems like he was a writer but not sure.